1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to humidification systems and more particularly to a control system and device for modifying the humidity of a volume of air.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices and humidification systems for controlling the humidity within an area or sealed environment are well known. Such devices are typically employed in greenhouses, manufacturing processes or in other industrial applications. Humidification systems are also frequently used with heating and air conditioning systems or the like for maintaining a constant humidity in an enclosed area of a building or residential structure.
Humidification systems are often used with forced-air heating units and typically operate only during an active cycle of the heating system. Forced air heating systems energize a heat source and fan to heat and blow air throughout the enclosed area. Conventional humidification systems then add moisture to the enclosed area to maintain a predetermined level of relative humidity. This arrangement has a disadvantage of not maintaining a constant humidity and allowing greater humidity fluctuations in the heated air and area. This also has a disadvantage of providing inconsistent and ineffective humidity, thereby resulting in an inefficient humidification system.
Other disadvantages of known humidification systems occur when the forced-air heating system has a greater capacity than required to heat the enclosed area of the structure. Problems of maintaining a constant humidity occur because the humidity of the enclosed area can be rapidly and greatly decreased before a humidistatic sensor can sense the drop in humidity and call for a moisturization of the heated air. This can result in a large percentage decrease in moisture to the air before the sensor signals for an increase. The problem can be exacerbated if the humidification system is only active while the heating system is blowing heated air, whereby the humidity may never be increased enough to reach the desired level. Further problems of adding moisture to the enclosure when the furnace is deactivated has disadvantages of the added moisture condensing or pooling in the ductwork, leaking ductwork causing damage to the building, microorganism growth and other related problems.
Known humidification systems used with forced-air heating systems have controlled the moisturization of the air using various methods including using a controller to sense and measure a relative humidity based on the active cycle of the heating system (U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,373); a controller to sense and measure the humidity so as to use a time delay for regulating the activation of the humidification system with the time delay being longer in warm weather and shorter in cold weather (U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,139); and to operate the humidifier for a predetermined period of time as determined by a formed operation amount signal (U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,254).
Thus, it is desireable to provide a humidification system that can efficiently control and maintain a constant humidity within the area regardless of whether the furnace is in 15 operation. It would be desirable to provide a humidity control system that automatically controls the moisture of the air within preset levels in conjunction with a forced-air heating system. A humidification system having a simple and efficient method of controlling and maintaining the humidity of the enclosed volume of air would advance the state of the art.